Familiar
by alleluiamagiatsuioku
Summary: That familiar time. That familiar kindness. That familiar smile. That unfamiliar time. That unfamiliar kindness. That unfamiliar smile. [Drabble-ish]


At first, time came as an easy thing to understand for Homura. As she adjusted her red rimmed glasses she would think about how much time passes slower when she's not doing anything, and how time would pass faster if she was having fun. The minutes seemed to go by in slow motion and the hours seemed to take days.

In the hospital when she had nothing to do but stare up at a white ceiling some things started to form in her head. The roof would start to crack and break, revealing the dark abyss forming inside. And as Homura lay there just watching the ceiling fall to pieces she would reach her hand and clench her fist with lead to scatterings of dust drifting to the ground and time would stop. The dust particles would freeze in air and everything would turn off around her, the doctors and nurses voices would be muffled and she would watch the now newly fixed roof with blank eyes and glazed over glasses.

One day Homura unfortunately able to escape all that and go into the real world, where taking the wrong steps and leaps would eventually lead into falling down a pit of regret and embarrassment. Where the world is a revolving chain of events and the hours slip by like the way her strands of hair pass each other when she is braiding them. Each step would lead to her head and blood and heart pounding like an accelerated synthesiser, and her mind would spin with possibilities which would lead to her skull cracking and violet blood pouring down her face and filling her dark purple eyes with it where it would finally turn red and feel thin like a thicker version of water.

But that eventually cleared up once she met that girl. Hair as pink as a bright rose, eyes as happy as a child's and smile as kind as a goddesses. Homura would try to take each step carefully and not let her feet snag of daggers that we're awaiting her darkened shadow, but that would all fade once she felt like smile melt her insides and her nice yet sincere words warm her heart until Homura swore it would burn with overwhelming passion until freezing over again with a frost like crystals that would smash and dissolve once they hit the ground.

Every time that smile was in Homura's presence time would stop, she would picture that ceiling in her head but would cast it away in order to see the brightness that had formed, it was fully shown in the rosy pink light that was Madoka. The Madoka that she loved and adored and cared for and cherished and who would always be kind to her, once time would never start again she could keep on living the dream with that same smile and the familiar voice calling her name pleasantly haunting the back of her mind. She would live happily with her new best friend in which they would always be by each other's sides-

And then Madoka died and time started again.

Emotional pain coursed through Homura's body like an electrical shock, her body would shiver and her eyes would widen in disbelief and shock until she swore she could feel the violet blood seeping out of her eyeball sockets. With tears streaming down her face the limp body of the very one who had protected her the entire time, given her reason to live and to care for others, was lying down below her in the transparent violet water that mirrored her terrified expression from miles away.

Homura hadn't asked for this. She didn't want this. She didn't want to be useless, worthless and not worth protecting. She wasn't worth protecting. Why couldn't Madoka see that? Do defeat Warplurgisnaucht did she have to sacrifice herself? What was she thinking sacrificing herself and leaving Homura aside? But of course she knew that she didn't have the right to call the kind Madoka selfish.

Her face was held close to Madoka's body, she felt her tears soak Madoka's shredded uniform and her tears felt different, almost like violet blood. Her insides were coursing with vibration and harsh breaths until she didn't know how to stand, how to walk or speak, but she did it anyway.

Time had suddenly gone much too fast. Homura could see flashes of purple and violet and bright pink beady eyes with an implanted smile and suddenly purple dust appeared and a switching noise could be heard, a click and a spin and a crash and a shatter.

And time was reversed.

The hospital room was basically the same except different. She could control time and she could see the ceiling ripping apart and when she looked a the bright purple soul gem she could see it cracking under pressure or emotional trauma but Homura couldn't tell the difference anyway.

A difference would have to be made. Protection was in order. Every step she made now wasn't filled with daggers of cautiousness and disorder but filled with pink gems of kindness and tranquility. If Homura had stepped on one it would not have broken but a crack would have formed, and every time she would trample on one it would have a hairline crack until it would shatter but always when Homura had that smile formed in her mind she would think that she has protect the one that she has sworn to protect.

No matter what stands in her way, no matter the fact that time was frozen in place ever since Warplurgisnaucht had come yet again and the bullets sounded and the mines went off and the bombs rung in her ears with bodies being torn apart and blood splattering across her white dress and black pantyhose and a pink soul gem cracking with a witch forming from it-

Wait. A witch?

Suddenly time is reversed again.

The road to destruction is inevitable. Homura must protect Madoka at all costs. Even if her mind is swarming with insecurities and doubts and hurt when Sayaka proclaims that she's been working with Kyoko and even if Sayaka turns into a witch right after with the violins and guitars pounding with notes and her familiars which look strikingly familiar dancing she would not stop.

But every step she took would be accompanied with loud bangs of cymbals and clapping of hands which she would reach out for and not grab because her hands have been held back by the hands of time that have been whirling at an unfamiliar rate.

The seconds would tick by in Homura's mind with indescribable numbers and she would cut herself with the daggers on her path and the pink gems that now held bitterness would shatter into tiny pieces of crystal in which Homura would slip and fall down on, she would hit a sharp rock that tore away her clothes and skin and leave only bones so that the mice and rats could tuck into her brains, veins and insides in which that warmth in them from that now unfamiliar smile had disappeared from.

But as both Homura as Madoka lay in the familiar transparent violet water in which she would remember the lost purple blood that once fell from her eyes she felt scared. A terrified passion that made her forget and lose track of time, the hands on the clock spun wildly and she could hear the bass pounding a single b flat note in her head with the beat of a high hat along with a tambourine and a snare drum banding away with a saddening melody that would be stuck in her her head and repeat like a broken record player that scratched and shattered like those familiar pink diamonds and that smile which had had her frozen in time since the beginning-

And with that single promise and a bullet through the darkened gem time reversed again.

Madoka. Her one and only friend. Homura didn't mind being trapped in the endless maze for eternity.

Even if that maze leads to nowhere. That the dark green and leafy hedge was so high that the sky - neither bright blue or navy blue - could not be seen with the naked eye. All paths would lead to a single step that would cause her to trip and fall down an pitch black abyss with particles of pink scattering around her that glowed in the darkness and while she was falling she would remember the words.

The words that Madoka had spoken to her. "Keep me from making a contract with Kyubey." The way Homura has pulled out the purple ribbons and discarded the red rimmed glasses, tossing them onto the ground with a single stroke of the arm and while Homura fell the swore she could also see the shattered lanes of those glasses.

When she looked up at the ceiling of the hospital now she didn't see it ripping apart now. The white would go through a hue colour cycle with ended up with the paint becoming black and turning into ash, drifting down and coating in her dark hair and falling into her already cold eyes.

Homura's heart was frozen. Not the kind an ordinary level of sincerity could melt. The kind where the soul is coated by so many layers of ice that is cannot be melted by fire, by warmth by heat. And while this was all familiar so her she would never stop looking for a way to keep that smile going on and on forever and ever with no signs of stopping in sight, kind of like that maze.

Time overruled any normal ability now. She was going through timelines like flies and not winning any of the races, no golden cup for her. The path was covered with a thick layer of ice and snow. The daggers were frozen and the forgotten violet blood tears had frozen up as well, the scatterings of pink crystals and glass were held still in midair like delicate snowflakes, it would only take one touch for them to melt.

But even if Homura had lost her way she would never stop protecting Madoka. Even if Madoka had discovered the truth about the magical girls again and made a wish to sacrifice her own existence for the magical girls who were in pain, even if she felt like giving up and was the edge of turning into a witch and created her own barrier internally in her soul gem with time getting complicated and stopping outside but continuing outside, even if she turned into a witch and were going to get executed eternally with never meeting that familiar smile again, even if Madoka was going to keep on living as the concept of hope and never be happy again-

But time had froze ever since Homura was waiting, and she was waiting forever for this moment.

Homura grabbed Madoka's wrists and time started again.

* * *

**A/N: This is what happens what you are bored and read too many Tsubasa Chronicle Fanfics involving Fai, please enjoy and R & R!**


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